Good web design is a key ingredient in any successful website, but how do we achieve this and how does it fit in with the technical build of a site? Our web designer, George takes us through his process:
It’s no secret that the technology industry is booming. The UK tech market is now valued at $1 trillion and has achieved a sector spot of 1st place in Europe and 3rd place globally. Technology is the epitome of innovation - things just keep getting better and the career opportunities are huge. There is however a misconception that you have to be ‘techy’ to work in tech. This really isn’t the case, the job roles required to support this huge industry are wide and varied so we wanted to give an overview of some of those non-tech roles:
IT Project Manager
IT Project Managers are the planners and organisers who work with a project team to deliver IT products and services on time and to budget. This is a multi-dimensional role which requires leadership, good communicational skills, strong organisational skills as well as the ability to organise your own time and workload, good attention to detail, flexibility and an open attitude to change, resilience, determination and a thorough understanding of computer systems and applications. This role is very much the engine behind a project, one that drives things forward to the completion of a brief and is often fast-paced and exciting.
Creative and copywriting
Design and copywriting are hugely important in the development of websites or technology products. Larger companies may choose to outsource these functions to external agencies, but many will retain an internal team too. This is a highly creative area and individuals from a wide range of creative backgrounds will be able to apply their experience of telling a story, engaging, exciting, educating, informing and persuading a range of users, customers and stakeholders.
Customer Support
If you enjoy working with people, helping and understanding their challenges, customer support is for you. A good listener who can quickly get to the nub of a problem and translate this back to the relevant team is a key skill required in any tech company. The difference between an organisation being good and being brilliant is all about how they support their customers for the long term. Experience in customer support in other sectors is welcomed in the tech industry or if you are starting out, and want a non-tech role in the tech sector this is a fantastic place to be if you are people and problem-solving focused, organised and resilient.
Account Management
Account Managers are masters of building relationships between the client and the business. The job of someone in Account Management is to be the linchpin between the client and the development team. Account Managers must understand the needs of the client, build a rapport with them, get to grips with the long-term needs of the organisation that the client works for and spot opportunities. This is a job for a people person, a strategic thinker and someone who is organised and good at negotiating. An Account Manager will often be the first port of call for a client issuing a new brief and it’s the job of the Account Manager to understand what’s required and brief back to their own team of technical developers and kick start the development process.
Financial Analyst
All businesses need financial experts and the tech industry is no different. Understanding the costs of running a tech business and providing critical business support to help spot investment and development opportunities is absolutely key in a tech business. If you have a background in finance, investment banking or accounting, this could be a great industry for you to flex your experience and gain some interesting personal growth.
Marketing
Martech managers (as they are sometimes called in the tech industry) help to promote a tech business through a thorough understanding of the product and via communications, digital marketing channels, influencers and PR. This a really interesting sector for a marketing professional as the rate of new product development is pretty high compared to other industries, meaning there is always a new and exciting story to tell…
HR
Naturally, the HR function is a necessity in every organisation whatever its size. Understanding the type of teams the business needs to achieve its vision, the individuals needed to make up those teams, retention strategies, career development, training and employee benefits are all super important functions of any tech business.
The technology industry is fast-paced and interesting. It’s also flexible and offers brilliant career development opportunities and needs to be supported by a huge range of people with different professional backgrounds – not just experts in technology. If you want to learn more, the following links may be useful.
Read more about the Olamalu team’s thoughts on working tech: https://www.olamalu.com/blog-page/opening-door-next-generation-tech-experts
Read more about opportunities for women in tech: https://www.womenintech.co.uk/get-into-tech
Read more about building a career in tech from The British Computing Society: https://www.bcs.org/it-careers/get-into-tech-how-to-build-a-career-in-it/
Who are we?
We are Olamalu, Drupal experts and experienced web developers. We’re a friendly and down to earth team based in West Oxfordshire, who work together to achieve brilliant outcomes. We’ve been developing websites and designing tailormade tech solutions for a huge range of different challenges for over 10 years.
We work with many of our clients as an ongoing technical partner, but we also offer a consultancy service to solve a specific strategic challenge.
Inspiring people interested in getting into tech as well as the next generation is really important to us and offering advice, work placements and apprenticeships is an important part of our community and outreach work.
September 2023